


Mindgames

by Call_Me_Apple



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Dissociation, Exploitation, Gen, Manipulation, Manipulative Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo-centric (Video Blogging RPF), no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28788999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Call_Me_Apple/pseuds/Call_Me_Apple
Summary: Dream finds a useful quirk of one of his toys.Aka a story of just how Dream has been using Ranboo's enderwalk.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 212





	Mindgames

**Author's Note:**

> In Ranboo’s “Confrontation” stream it was revealed that the voice of Dream that he hears is nothing more than a manifestation of his inner monologue, but the real Dream has been using Ranboo in some way. Here is how.  
> Hope you enjoy!

Nowadays, Dream doesn't come across other people often. Most of his time is spent grinding for resources in faraway lands or planning the next course of action for the server. He has few friends left, his social interactions are minimal, but he is fine with it being that way. It is the path he chose for himself, after all. 

For the first time in a while, he finds himself traversing along the Prime Path and comes across Ranboo. Normally, he would've ignored the boy and went on his way, but he notices something odd about the monochrome figure and stops. 

The half-enderman is frozen still on the side of the road, his mismatched eyes directed at the starry night sky. He doesn't move a muscle, as if paralyzed. Intrigued, Dream walks up to the boy and calls his name.

"Ranboo?" 

The name prompts no reaction. Dream waves a hand in front of the loopy enderman's eyes. No reaction. Ranboo continues staring into the dark sky, eyes unfocused. A careful touch on the shoulder makes Ranboo turn his head, meeting the eyes of Dream's mask with the same scattered gaze. 

Dream fills the silence with a curious "What are you doing here?"

Ranboo tilts his head, his pupils constricting for a second, like the shutter of a camera focusing. Dream pictures the cogs of the enderman's bizarre mind begin turning, powering up his faulty brain. 

Instead of words, Ranboo lets out an alien croak - the vwoop of an enderman.

Confused, Dream asks another question "Why are you here?"

Ranboo stares forward emptily for a minute, before replying with another foreign sound.

"What’s wrong?" 

The enderman lowers his head, directing his empty gaze to the ground and, to Dream's delight and astonishment, tears begin to spill from Ranboo’s eyes in fat droplets. The boy cries silently, his shoulders shaking, wincing at the burn the tears leave as they slide down his cheeks and drip onto the grass. 

How interesting.

“Now, now, no need to cry…” the masked man says to the distraught boy, his voice saccharine sweet. There is something very, very odd about Ranboo’s current mental state. Like a shark smelling blood from miles away, Dream senses vulnerability in the boy. He wants to see how this weakness can be used, how the bizarre hybrid’s mind functions. After all, you aren’t really a master if you don’t know the inner workings of your tools.

"What's going on with you, I wonder..."

* * *

Dream comes across a roaming, empty-minded Ranboo many more times. That lost, absent state of mind the enderman goes into seems to be a somewhat regular occurrence. Dream is surprised that he hasn't heard of this quirk before. It would seem that the reason no one else is bothered by Ranboo's blind wanderings is that Dream is the only one aware of them. The only times Dream has seen him in that state was when the two were alone on the server, with no one else to witness the hybrid’s behaviour. 

Ever since Ranboo’s memory problems became public knowledge, Dream has been coming up with ways to use that fault for his ill gains. Unfortunately, it seemed that Ranboo’s sieve of a brain was capable of retaining major events, so committing crimes in front of the boy with the hope of it falling through the cracks of his memory was out of the picture.

But now, there is a new ace up Dream’s sleeve. A new weakness, a new fault to be used. Dream's hands itch to put that secret knowledge to use, but first, he needs to learn more. He needs to know what causes such behavior so that he can potentially cause it intentionally, he needs to know how it can be used. 

So Dream spends some time doing research.

He scoures the server’s libraries for books on psychology and enderman biology. The latter don't provide any eye-openers, the psychology books, however, offer some insight. 

The brain is a complex structure that constantly changes and adapts to the outside world, it learns and then uses experiences and knowledge to combat whatever problems arise in one's life. Sometimes, the brain acts of its own accord, without cluing in the owner, creating defenses and paths of thought that are hidden from one's consciousness. Dream reads about defense mechanisms that the brain creates in response to stress and trauma, the many different walls and strategies it comes up with to protect the mental state of its owner. 

Whatever Ranboo’s dissociative phases are, they are most likely a defense mechanism. If only Dream could find the trigger… 

* * *

With some observation and experimentation, Dream learns that Ranboo’s dissociation is a response to high stress and emotion. Once every few days, the enderman hybrid has an emotional breakdown and comes out of it looking confused and detached from the world. 

In this dissociative state, Ranboo’s cognitive abilities are severely limited. He is incapable of speech and independent thought and follows whatever prompt he’s given. All memories accumulated at the time seem to be erased the moment Ranboo returns to his normal state of mind. Or rather, they are locked away in a distant part of his brain, to be unlocked once dissociation returns.

It’s a sad sight, really, but all Dream feels watching the boy’s suffering is glee.

Dream remembers the joy of playing with Tommy, of cutting the young boy off from all his friends, of convincing him that Dream was the only one he could trust. Oh, how he had wanted to break Tommy, to turn his arch-nemesis into an obedient little fool. He almost succeeded, too. Had the child not been as arrogant and defiant, Dream would have had him under his thumb by now. But Tommy has slipped the leash. Now his mind is too far out of Dream’s reach - protected by Technoblade, of all people. As much fun as manipulating Tommy had been, that boy was wasted effort.

But here is Ranboo. Poor, vulnerable, forgetful Ranboo, caught in the middle of a crossfire between friends and nations, his mind raising defenses to deal with the stress of the reality he’s put himself into. Dream has no idea how his predatory sight hasn't caught onto the boy’s potential before. The enderman is a puzzle with no picture, practically begging for a stronger mind to assemble him in the manner they wanted.

It is so much easier, so much more fun, to break someone who is already broken. Without the complexities of shattering Ranboo’s mind to shards, Dream could simply piece him together into a puppet.

Ranboo is the perfect tool.

* * *

Dream uses his new puppet as a proxy for his schemes.

The enderman provides him with TnT for the Doomsday and aids Dream in blowing up the community house to frame Tommy. And, once L’Manburg is gone, Ranboo follows pre-given orders and meets Dream in the Nether.

“I trust this state of you to keep this safe for me,” Dream says as he pulls a disc out of his inventory. The disc. The green inner circle of ‘cat’ glistening in the glow of the Nether as it lands in Ranboo’s hands. “Hide it somewhere close by, but not obvious, so that no one can find it by accident.”

“And if you ever find it yourself…” he adds as he leaves, ”contact me immediately.”

* * *

A few days later, a mess of letters and punctuation signs pings in the back of Dream’s head as he is busy preparing for the next event. He looks at the jumbled message from Ranboo, their last meeting fresh in his mind. He abandons his task immediately, grasps his trident and water bucket, and flings himself into the air, towards the arctic plain. 

In a few minutes, his boots hit the snow near Technoblade’s cabin. Dream knows that this is where Ranboo resides after Doomsday, but doesn’t know where he lives exactly. It doesn’t take him long to spot the hybrid, however. After a single look around the area, Dream’s eyes fall upon a massive crater by the hills. He walks to the crater’s edge and finds Ranboo’s hunched figure covering in front of an open chest, empty gaze directed at its lifted lid.

Judging by the massive hole left on Technoblade’s property by something much more serious than a creeper explosion, Ranboo didn’t just come across the hidden chest by accident. He was looking for it intentionally, digging out the ground below his new home in a desperate pursuit of a rediscovered memory. 

Dream clicks his tongue and jumps down to stand beside the crumpled hybrid, unsurprised to discover the disc in the chest in front of him. 

"Oh, you poor thing," Dream coos as he grabs the record, "You've found out what happened, haven't you? Or rather what's been happening…"

Ranboo really is a sad sight - crumpled on the wet dirt, filth seeping into the cloth of his trousers, shoulders hunched, hands fallen listlessly to the ground. Scorched paths are painted on his cheeks from tears - burns that will heal and reappear the next time Ranboo goes through one of his breakdowns. 

"And you can't even share your burdens with anyone. What will they think if they learn you've been conspiring with 'the bad guy', huh? What will they think when they learn you've betrayed everyone again?" Dream says to Ranboo’s husk as he admires the disc in his hand. “I’ll have to look after this myself now.”

For such power to be held in such a small, insignificant item… what a fascinating outcome of life. There is no time to reminisce, however. This story is reaching its culmination, the day of reckoning fast approaching, yet there are still arrangements to be made, resources to grind, swords to sharpen. Thankfully, Dream has a spare pair of hands to do part of his job for him. The puppetmaster hides the disc in his inventory and crouches to Ranboo’s level to give his final command. 

“I have one last job for you, memory boy.” The enderman hybrid’s head tilts to the side, eyes meeting Dream’s mask. Stacks of netherrack, TnT and a flint and steel fall before him, dropped by his master. “Destroy Tommy’s house, set it into a permanent blaze.”

Ranboo’s irises constrict in recognition, accepting his task. He doesn’t rise immediately, brewing in his thoughts for a minute, before folding his legs under himself and standing up in a slow, practiced, robotic manner, out to fulfil his order.

The boy goes into the direction of the Nether portal, netherrack in hand. The smiley mask follows him with its soulless gaze until he disappears behind the horizon. The trident returns to Dream’s gloved hand and flies into the sky, carrying its owner back to his duties.

Dream’s play is fast approaching its finale.

He can’t wait to see the conclusion.

**Author's Note:**

> Liked my interpretation of Ranboo’s memory loss? You can find the full theory about it [here](https://twitter.com/Call_Me_Apple_/status/1350448647314567172?s=20)
> 
> If you enjoyed reading, consider leaving kudos, comments and following me on Twitter!  
> And if you want to see more, subscribe to my profile on ao3!  
> [My Twitter](https://twitter.com/Call_Me_Apple_)  
> [My ao3 profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Call_Me_Apple)


End file.
